Home Office — Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme

What the study found

Home Office statistics for the year ending 31 March 2025 recorded 8,778 referrals to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, a 27 per cent increase on the previous year. The education sector made the most referrals (3,129, or 36 per cent), ahead of the police (2,631, or 30 per cent), and people aged 11 to 15 were the largest age group (3,192, or 36 per cent). Referrals with no ideology identified were the largest concern type, together 56 per cent, compared with 21 per cent for Extreme Right-Wing, 10 per cent for Islamist Extremism, and 1 per cent — 66 referrals — recorded as InCel Extremism; 1,472 individuals, or 17 per cent of referrals, were adopted as Channel cases. ^[1]

Why it matters here

This government dataset gives a sense of scale for how the UK's counter-terrorism system records incel-related concerns. In the year to March 2025, InCel Extremism accounted for 66 of 8,778 Prevent referrals — about 1 per cent — while the single largest share involved no identified ideology at all. It is cited on are incels a terror threat? as one measure of how large a share of formal counter-terrorism casework incel ideology represents, alongside evidence on the size and nature of incel communities. The figures reflect referrals and safeguarding categories rather than confirmed threats.